Bennell was jailed for four years in 1994 for raping a British boy on a football tour of Florida. He was then jailed for nine years in 1998 for 23 offences against six boys in England and was handed a two-year sentence in 2015 for abusing a boy at a football camp in Macclesfield in 1980.

As many as seven professional clubs are embroiled in the growing scandal, Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor confirms.